Best Picture Brainrot - A Countdown to the 100th Oscars

We are  68 weeks away from the 100th Academy Awards and just like William Wyler peaked last week with the movie that is seen as his Oscars masterpiece - so too does Billy Wilder this year.   The Apartment  is the Wilder Best Picture winner most associated with him - and it's easy to see why. The Apartment is the story of the meek C.C. Baxter - an insurance clerk with eyes on the way up and a curoi...

We are  69 weeks away from the 100th Academy Awards and we bid farewell to our good friend William Wyler who has brought us bangers such as  Mrs. Miniver and  The Best Years of Our Lives but now brings us his arguably most famous Oscars work - 1960's  Ben-Hur . Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ sounds like a curious novel to adapt if you are a famous Jewish Hollywood director.  Alas, William Wyler set...

We are  70 weeks away from the 100th Academy Awards and... buckle up.  Vincente Minelli's French-Belle Epoque-set Gigi is our 31st Best Picture Winner and I assure you, we have a lot to say about this. Gigi  is a (14-year old) girl who is a courtesan (mistress/hooker-in training) under the tutelage of her grandma and great-aunt (pimps) in the roaring French ages where you're either too rich to hav...

We are  71 weeks away from the 100th Academy Awards and today, we go back to the World War II well with a non-Wyler-led epic about POWs on the Pacific front who are forced to build a river crossing in the lovely jungles of Burma.  The Bridge on the River Kwai is our first David Lean, and our 30th Best Picture Winner.  Featuring special guest - Zach! You likely know him best for originating the cha...

We are  72 weeks away from the 100th Academy Awards and today, we're sponsored by Kalshi because we're talking about a bet.  A certain bet, a specific bet about if it is possible to go around the world in less than 3 months.  Yes,  Around the World in 80 Days   is the winner of these 29th Academy Awards. You may be familiar with Jules Verne's novel - but this movie brings the story to the big scre...

We are  73 weeks away from the 100th Academy Awards and today, we've got the meats.   Marty   tells the story of a sweet New York butcher who finds love after 34 years of trying, which is a crazy long amount of time, apparently.  Maybe when you're Italian! Marty Piletti and Clara Snyder are both old, busted individuals for the 1950s - or at least that's what all of their friends and family tell th...

We are  74 weeks away from the 100th Academy Awards and today we go back to a city we've been in a few times before, New York.  But this time, we're bound for a more working class lifestyle by hitting the docks.   On the Waterfront is Elia Kazan's story about a man who has to make the hard choices when faced with his work versus his morals. Terry Malloy works, appropriately, on the waterfront as a...

We are  75 weeks away from the 100th Academy Awards and today we welcome a colorful cast of characters all clad in aloha shirts.  Yes, Fred Zinneman's  From Here to Eternity is the story of the crew of a Hawaiian military outpost in the looming days of World War II, and our 26th Best Picture Winner. An ex-boxer with the suspicious name of Robert E. Lee Prewitt arrives at the Schofield Military Bar...

We are  76 weeks away from the 100th Academy Awards and today we go to the big top - that bastion of family fun, dazzling feats of human agility and... criminal clowns?  These are all part of  The Greatest Show on Earth - Cecil B. DeMille's circus epic (for lack of a better word) and the winner of the 25th Academy Awards. A movie about the circus should have a commensurately wacky plot, and this m...

We are  77 weeks away from the 100th Academy Awards and today we travel to the iconic city of love as tourists for  An American in Paris , the Gene Kelly-led MGM musical that brough color back to the Oscars with a nonsensical love triangle that runs on good vibes and dance numbers. In this movie, Jerry Mulligan is a starving artist and American ex-GI living in, of course, Paris.  He falls in love...

We are  78 weeks away from the 100th Academy Awards and today we talk all about  All About Eve ,  1950's Best Picture winner that brings one of the most feminine stories to the podcast yet - about a woman who seeks to worm her way into the social circle of an aging Broadway star, with plans to usurp her. Bette Davis' Margo Channing is iconic in this movie as the aging star who is threatened by a t...

We are  79 weeks away from the 100th Academy Awards and today we discuss the rise and fall of a somewhat fake but mostly real (but still fake) American politician named Willie Stark in 1949's  All the King's Men . Willie Stark is the governor of a fictional and unnamed American state that is stealthily set in Stockton, California.  He is a stand-in for the very real politician Huey Long - the pola...

We are  80 weeks away from the 100th Academy Awards and this week we ask:  To Brainrot?  Or not to Brainrot?  That is the question.  'Tis better to have Brainrotted and lost than... wait.  Wrong one.  This is 1948's  Hamlet , the winner of the 21st Academy Awards. We welcome back our friend from  Rebecca , Laurence Olivier; he has redefined himself as a Shakespearean thespian, perhaps THE Shakespe...

We are  81 weeks away from the 100th Academy Awards and this week it's time for a very special episode.  Like the Oscars in the late 40s, we are here to talk about antisemitism, and will do so through the lens of the well-meaning Gentleman's Agreement . There's something to be said about earnest tackling of social issues by movies; they can uncover real rifts within society, attemping to diagnose...

We are  82 weeks away from the 100th Academy Awards and for a second time, the gang is Wylin' out.  William Wyler returns to the World War II well with another homefront war drama - but this one focuses on American veterans coming home.  This is 1946's The Best Years of Our Lives. In the vaguely Midwestern town of Boone City, three veterans return home from World War II, each one bringing new outl...

We are  83 weeks away from the 100th Academy Awards and it's... 5 'o clock somewhere!  Join hic Adam, Drew, and Sarah as they wash down last year's feel-good comedy with an unrelenting alcoholic drama; 1945's The Lost Weekend . Don Birnam is a man with a problem - a post-Prohibition alcohol addiction that comes to a head on one specific weekend.  Instead of going on a rehabilitative retreat with h...

We are  84 weeks away from the 100th Academy Awards and it's time Adam, Drew, and Sarah got a little bit... Catholic.  We're not following the standard path today, no, we're Going My Way - 1944's intergenerational comedy of a Best Picture Winner. There's a war going on?  Is what the good folk of 1944 probably asked as they laughed their way through this story of a young priest who shows up to a fa...

We are  85 weeks away from the 100th Academy Awards; follow Adam, Drew, and Sarah as they travel to unoccupied France to escape the Nazi takeover of mainland Europe.  Of course to get out they need to go through... Casablanca ,  1943's iconic Best Picture Winner. Back to back World War II movies isn't a surprise - though  Casablanca bucks a bit of the optimistic patriotism of  Mrs. Miniver for the...

We are  86 weeks away from the 100th Academy Awards; follow Adam, Drew, and Sarah as they hang out with a particular British housewife by the name of  Mrs. Miniver ,  the winner of 1942's Best Picture Oscar. Step aside World War I - your time is up.  There's a new World War in town and this one has villains with killer fashion sense.  We appreciate your contributions but frankly my dear (wrong ref...

We are  87 weeks away from the 100th Academy Awards; follow Adam, Drew, and Sarah as the answer the question all of us have been thinking:  How Green Was My Valley ?  Of course that is the name of 1941's Best Picture winner. Wale, Wale, Wale, what do we have here?  A valley huh?  How green is it?  Oh, not that green?  Covered with coal soot actually?  Oh Wale...  That's it.  That's the movie.  It'...

We are  88 weeks away from the 100th Academy Awards; follow Adam, Drew, and Sarah as they get a little Hitchcockian and meet the winner of 1940's Best Picture - Rebecca. We find ourselves in the hangover year from Gone With the Wind with Rebecca , another dark love story - but one where we trade American aesthetic for European sensibility, large scale for intimacy, and sweeping color for black and...

We are  89 weeks away from the 100th Academy Awards; follow Adam, Drew, and Sarah as they, frankly, give a damn about the 12th Best Picture winner - 1939's Gone With the Wind . 1939 was a banner year for a lot of reasons.  The New York Yankees swept the Cincinnati Reds in the World Series, Hitler invaded Poland, and a scrappy little cinematic novel adaptation named  Gone With the Wind released to...

We are  90 weeks away from the 100th Academy Awards; follow Adam, Drew, and Sarah as they consume more Capraganda with the 11th Best Picture winner - 1938's Y ou Can't Take it With You. Like we said, there are 90 weeks until Oscars 100.  Or should we say... 90 "twee"ks for the most millennial-core Best Picture which is somehow also from the 1930s.  This movie stars Jimmy Stewart as the son of a bu...

Can you believe this is our 10th epsiode?  We are 91 weeks away from the 100th Academy Awards; follow Adam, Drew, and Sarah as "They Accuse!" (that will make sense later) one of the most French Best Picture winners - 1937's  The Life of Emile Zola. We're back in the biopic trenches (regardless of how you pronounce it) with the story of Emile Zola, a French journalist and author whose career spanne...

We are 92 weeks away from the 100th Academy Awards; follow Adam, Drew, and Sarah as they get Zieggy with it in our next Best Picture winner discussion - 1936's  The Great Ziegfeld. The Great Ziegfeld tells the story of the... great Ziegfeld.  He's okay.  One of the biggest drivers of the growth of Broadway, and inspiration for the events in  The Broadway Melody -  Florenz Ziegfeld went from relati...